It’s fun to look back at this part of the journey, 1.5 years later. In August 2020, as many people during the pandemic did, we decided to make a life altering choice: we bought a piece of raw land. As “starving artists” (wedding photography during a pandemic…. didn’t go so well, lol), we had limited options.

The search

We knew and loved Horsefly in BC’s stunning Cariboo region for a couple of years at that point. And it was our not-so-secret dream to eventually end up there, away from the hustle and bustle in Vancouver.

For several weeks we scoured the internet, looking for anything with a maximum price tag of $200 000. At that point, we were naively hoping we’d be able to get a bank loan and find something with a small dwelling. But our numerous searches, including in areas far outside of Horsefly (within a 6-7 hour drive of Vancouver), showed us either plots of land or did-a-murder-happen-here cabins, often with no winter access.

There was this one piece of land in Horsefly that kept showing up over and over. We actually laughed about a long time before our search, as it had been for sale before. “Who would buy that slope”. As it turns out… we would.

The more we thought about it, the more it made sense to purchase a small piece of land, without needing a mortgage, instead of something with an existing building that we’d have to renovate extensively. We figured we’d have to option to pace ourselves financially and to build whenever we could.

So in August 2022, we travelled to Horsefly to check out “the slope” and have a meeting with Horsefly Realty.

Seeing the slope for the first time

We arrived the evening before our meeting, so decided to check things out when we got there. I’m not going to lie, when first seeing the land, I had a strong what-are-we-thinking reaction. The initial enthusiasm was long gone and a sinking feeling of “this is too much” took its place. There was no driveway, so the only way to even access the land, was over a very high bank. And once standing on it, the slope seemed so steep.

But as luck would have it, Michelle from Horsefly Realty happened to drive by and she stopped when she saw our car parked on the side of the road. Despite it being a Saturday evening, she took the time to talk with us and to walk around. She helped us see the potential again instead of the overwhelm. So we decided then and there: let’s do it, before it gets snagged away. A visit to the office and an evening phone call to the owners later and the rest is history.

Back to visit as official owners

By the end of August, after all the paperwork was finalized with a notary in Vancouver, Jelger and I were official land owners with the title in our name. We never owned a property or land before, so of course we were ecstatic!

We went back for a visit in September, feeling like the king and queen of our little empire. First order of business: decide where to have the driveway and a building spot. We quickly settled on the part of the land that had the least slope. A third of it has what we defined as “reasonable slope” and the other 2/3rd is “steep AF”.

Next up we had a visit from Wayne, a local well dowser with years of experience. He recommended a spot for our well, so we would also take that into consideration for our building site.

Side note: to this day, we haven’t found all the survey posts of our land. But at some point we’ll find the actual borders with a metal detector. Luckily we do know where the most important ones are, so we don’t build anything too close to the neighbours.

Of course we needed professional help for the land clearing. As much as we were exited about the DIY part, without experience falling trees and using heavy machinery, that just wasn’t an option for us. So we hired the fabulous Leonard Teppema. We basically just mentioned wanting “a building spot”, parking for 4 cars and “save as many trees as possible”.

The spot for the start of the driveway was also determined by trees. We didn’t want to needlessly chop 100+ year old firs. So picked a spot that bypassed them.

As it happens with people that are great at what they do, Len and his team could only start in October because they were too busy. But we were happy he still fit us in before the winter, because that’s definitely preferred. Winter and the snow load helps to pack everything down and hardens your driveway etc.

For now, I will leave you with this image, the two of us back to Vancouver, eagerly awaiting the clearing of the driveway and building spot. 🙂

Thank you for reading along!

Tanja

Video of us exploring the land

Video of the well dowsing

Follow our latest videos by subscribing here: